Two Lives: The double life of New Zealand's top athletes

The origin of Two Lives

When you see our top athletes on the world stage, it would be safe to assume that they were just a full time athlete. However in a small sport like Athletics this is often far from the case. In fact, it is extremely challenging to make a living off Athletics. Athletes often have other sources of income to help fund their living and athletics expenses to enable them to pursue their dreams. Aside from this, there are a number of athletes who are pursuing their careers “off the track”, not only thinking about their futures when they step away from the sport but also for living a more balanced life and exploring other ambitions they might have. I wanted to illustrate the dual identity or ‘two lives’ of three of our top track and field athletes, who not only have represented New Zealand on the World Stage multiple times, but are multi dimensional humans who have other aspects of life aside from training and competing. I also wanted to inspire others that it’s possible albeit a challenge that you can do both work and sport.